Pet Love

2012
Series of six C-Prints
each 30 x 36,5 cm

Photographic Realisation: Claus Bach

Click image to enlarge.

Pet Love

One of the greatest things that can enrich a person’s life is to share it with a pet, to learn to take into account the capabilities and needs of another species and try to understand how this creature is seeing the world. The agreement between a pet and its master can lead to harmonious and satisfying life on both sides.

The instinctive communication, touching and moving together with an animal can be utterly satisfying and fun. Touching a pet has sensual nuances, and the dance of coming together and setting limits resembles that of between lovers or best friends. For the pet, it makes no difference how wealthy, beautiful or successful its family members are. This acceptance even prevents mental and physical illnesses and eases the social life between human beings themselves.

This series of photographs presents intimate moments between people and pets. Romantic hugs and kisses between species are removed from the secrecy of home and presented publicly as art prints. The photos expose the pleasures of cheek to cheek, paw to hand, and fur to naked skin.

In the Northern hemisphere, the carbon footprint of a dog equals that of a SUV, due to imported, industrially produced food, and hobbies and services provided. Cats, as solely carnivorous, have a huge carbon footprint when compared to a vegetarian animal of the same size. Despite this, cats and dogs are the most popular pets, and those pets have a long history of adapting their behavior for human homes. Often this adaption means, when compared with the wild form of the same species, loss of intelligence and physical strength and the tendency to follow the master's ideas and desires rather than those of the animal itself.

There are hundreds of species of animals that have great potential as pets with more ecologically sustainable properties than cats or dogs. As the natural habitats of these animals are disappearing, these species would also benefit greatly from the status of a pet, and it would grant them a new safe biotope in living rooms and gardens. However, the massive industries around those two standard pets – cats and dogs – would lose much of their income should the pet-loving crowd chose to select mainly vegetarian pets or other less demanding species as their companions. Individuals who have decided to share their homes and hearts with rodents, birds, skunks, alpacas, sloths etc. have equal experiences of intimacy and fun as dog or cat owners.

The idea of an extended family with pets has always existed and satisfies needs on both sides. In a world at the brink of eco-catastrophe, the most sustainable family one could have is one without children. Even when compared with a dog, the carbon footprint of a new human being is devastating. To choose not to have a baby, but instead to pamper a pet is an extremely humanistic act that helps humankind as a whole in the struggle to save natural resources and give us better chances to exist longer as a species on this planet.